my previous post from yesterday https://lemmy.ml/post/49529603
The good news I guess is that the timer starts on monday because the 3rd is the jurisdictional court’s (might as well say Riverside County, CA) holiday for the 4th. And after my last post I went and bought a security camera, so worst case I can document my window being closed if I want to be a stupid coward that lets bullies play Calvinball with signed contracts against me. With my fucking life.
And it’s just really important to me that the window stay open in my room. It’s a whole list of deal breakers.
-
I don’t want to get fucking covid from the 8 other units filled with people here because I’m the last weirdo that goes to work and the store with a mask on. When I keep the window closed because of paranoia over this conflict, I feel like I need to mask in my own bedroom. And that’s fucked.
-
This luxurious closet sized bedroom is too small for a full sized person and two large cats to live on top of each other. They need to be able to lay out on the patio and enjoy life. And they need to be able to run back inside if something scares them, like the many coyote that have wilderness right fucking next door and I have seen in our back yard with my cats running from them. Can’t do ‘open it when they want back in’ no how, no way. (There’s also a giant drama about gates that enclose a section of the yard that apparently me closing them at night drives them into a steaming rage but keeps my guys safe)
-
There’s 80 pounds of goddamned cat litter right next to the window and 8 feet from where I sit at the computer and sleep. I need the ventilation.
-
I LIKE THE FRESH AIR.
-
The A/C is too fucking cold anyway
In addition to buying the security camera (fuck I need an sd card of course it’s separate) I also started looking for a new place to be miserable with a live-in landlord for too goddamned much money. But this shit is on a timeline WAY faster than that. Fuck.
So I don’t want to be cowed by this. But I also don’t want to get my life all fucked up by it. I don’t want this demon to steal a whole month’s rent (waited until the day after I paid this month’s rent the fucking parasite) AND a 600 dollar penalty if I lose. Not to mention paying 4x what I can afford for an extended stay room…
I’m completely in the right but on the other hand do you think the judge rents, or do you think it’s more likely they have some rental properties of their own and all their sentiments are with the law breaker psycho landlord?
Anyway this is my panic attack post
edit: I am purposefully not engaging with any comments on the subject of whether or not my landlord has a genuine gripe about me having my window open and my door closed in a room that does not have a temperature sensor for the A/C system. I offered to close the vent. I offered to have my rent raised to compensate. All was ignored. It’s about power tripping. So this post is about my rights in the face of that.
Your lease may not specifically say that you have to keep windows closed, but it is likely that there is a requirement for the landlord to provide air conditioning. Requirements like this usually have a stipulation that the renter not waste the provided utility. That’s what your landlord is likely dinging you with, since the landlord is providing AC.
The only way to deal with it is that you’d have to sign off on taking ownership of the air conditioning. However, since it sounds like you have roommates given your fear of catching COVID at home, that doesn’t seem likely.
It also seems likely that this is going to follow you to whatever rental living arraignment you have. Unless you are contractually taking full ownership of providing air conditioning to a liveable temperature, you’re going to run into someone telling to keep the windows closed.
Have you read their lease/rental agreement? Doesn’t seem like it, so perhaps it’s best to not speculate. OP says there is no requirement to keep the window shut and also says that the landlord is refusing to provide a legible copy of the rental agreement. Wonder why?
That is ridiculous advice. That is not sensible at all. I would never suggest to someone that they accept ownership of a system that could break at a moment’s notice if they were simply a tenant…
Highly doubtful that it’d follow OP if they could find something better, with a livable space and more ingredients to live a dignified life.
A window open in that climate, even during the summer, is not a huge risk. If OP paid for the electricity (which they had already offered to do in the form of a rent increase), this wouldn’t be a problem. Sounds like they aren’t able to live a dignified life in their current situation and alternatives aren’t really present at this time.
It’s almost like if you are a landlord, it’s your job to make sure that people have the ability to safely and comfortably live in the places you rent out, as long as they aren’t hurting anybody or damaging the property… sounds like part of their job description to me.
I don’t know though, you tell me how actually landlords have it so bad because of the closet they rent out having an open window in a relatively dry climate and the tenant wanting to make it right and keep their window open by paying more rent. The horror.
…? If there is not sufficient filtering, OP is at some level of risk living with other people with shared ventilation.
I haven’t read the agreement, in part because OP didn’t provide it. I’m just providing a probable means in which the landlord could be using in order to push OP out on the street.
A requirement to provide a means of air conditioning is common in the warmer parts of the USA; it is a reason why the summer increased death toll stays so low despite lethal summer temperatures. It also depends on how the law is written; someone else would need to read the law to see if opening a window is considered acceptable or not.
And for everyone making trying to make a moral argument to me about this, I’m not making a moral argument. I’m trying to explain the possible legal mechanism that is occurring where the landlord is trying to push out OP as a way for OP to look at ways to defend themselves.
Your affectatious writing style and your constant references to a purely mind palace version of what you think the law ‘probably’ is resound to make you look like a sophomoric fucking moron.
You are correct that my lease agreement is a black box to you. But you go on to speculate that the California civil code makes it illegal for me to open my window?
I’m shocked you weren’t called on it. Cite your source, fucking nitwit.
https://castelblanco.com/renters-rights-air-conditioning-california/
Seems like California doesn’t require AC for habitability, but mandates landlord repair and maintenance if the service was provided when the lease was signed and the tenant moved in. Sounds like since you have AC, your landlord is required to provide it to at least one of the tenants unless it was newly installed.
It is a lawyer summary instead of the code, but feel free to dig into the California legal code if you want to argue back.
OP is very likely not responsible for that as a tenant. Unless, of course, they take your silly advice to assume ownership of an expensive A/C unit serving a house/unit with several tenants.
Sounds like you are in bad faith. Nobody suggests that.
You’re right, OP likely isn’t responsible for AC. That’s why the owner controls the AC, likely because they are legally required to provide AC. That’s what I said originally.
However, it is usually written into the law that tenants can’t waste landlord provided utilities, and this sounds like the argument that the landlord is making to the town. It sounds like this is just an excuse for the landlord to kick OP out, but this isn’t an argument that I’m making is good.
You keep mixing me up with the landlord.
Edit: It turns out I am somewhat wrong. CA law requires that, if AC is provided, it must be restored by the landlord in case the AC breaks at the landlord’s cost alone. Tenants are legally able to withhold rent due to a broken AC.
Therefore, there is no legal way for OP as a tenant to take over AC costs.
Having been a scholar on so many laws. Just baskets full of laws.
No I’m not, sorry. To me, it sounds like you are trying to confuse OP and get them to assume ownership of an A/C unit.
No. There may be other ways. They can look up the law and there might be an out for opening a window. I don’t know. However, based on the limited information given to me, this is likely the excuse given by the landlord to kick out OP.
Lol what did your imagination run out? You can’t close your eyes and figure out if the law you invented in your mind has exceptions written into itself?
I guess even prodigies have their limits
You wanted ideas of how it could happen and I gave the possible explanation. If you want to argue in front of the judge that an open window isn’t enough of a waste to warrant eviction, go on ahead.